1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an image processing system control system and more particularly to a control system which receives transformation command information for a selected plurality of frames in a sequence of image frames and in response thereto outputs transformation control commands for each frame in the sequence.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
Methods of producing multi-dimensional spatial transformations have been developed and are discussed in references such as Principles of Interactive Computer Graphics by William M. Newman and Robert F. Sproull, McGraw-Hill Book Company, second edition 1979, Transmission And Display of Pictorial Information, by D. E. Pearson, A Halstead Press Book, 1975 and "A Digital Signal Processing Approach to Interpolation", by Ronald W. Schaefer and Lawrence R. Rabiner, Proc. IEEE, Vol. 61, pp. 692-702, June 1973. However, for transformations which involve rotation, perspective representations, or other transformations which involve more than simple unidirectional translations, or scaling the transformation process involves multi-dimensional spatial filtering and interpolation operations. Consequently, a video image transformation process requires complex and time consuming processing for each picture element of the transformed video image. Transformations are thus rendered impractical in terms of cost of data processing time for complex images such as raster scan television displays. The long processing times required further make the real time processing of a continuous stream of television frames virtually impossible with present day technology.
Nevertheless, a practical system for transforming multi-dimensional visual images has an important demand for such diverse purposes as producing special effects in television programming or transforming a satellite picture of the earth which is distorted by the curvature of the earth into a flat pictorial representation.